Family, friends baffled by pilot's disappearance

BRACKETTVILLE, Texas (CNN) -- As air crews searched a Colorado mountainside for a bomb-carrying warplane and its pilot, family members and friends worked to cope with the mysterious disappearance of Capt. Craig Button.

Ben and Rozetta Pingenot, who recently rented a home to
Button in Bracketville, Texas, described the pilot as an
"all-American boy" who loved flying, looked forward to the
future, and got along well with his parents.

"The one thing that made him different was his love of
flying," Ben Pingenot said. "He liked everything about
aviation, especially military aviation. That was his
passion."

"I just thought of him as an all-American boy."

The Pingenots said they received a letter from Button on
April 2 -- the day he disappeared -- that indicated
everything was fine.

"Flying is going well," Button wrote. "I love the A-10. Most
everything we do is low level. I'll be dropping live bombs
this week. The gun is a blast."

Button and his
A-10 Thunderbolt
disappeared 11 days ago while
on a training run. Button broke away from a three-plane
formation during a flight exercise over Arizona. The plane
dropped off radar in Colorado, and the Air Force suspects the
A-10 ran out of fuel.

Air Force officials have said they have no idea why Button, a
highly regarded pilot, would have flown off course.
Speculation as to why he peeled away from the formation
ranges from suicide to theft.

Air Force investigators told CNN Sunday they are reinterviewing people who earlier reported seeing what may have been the plane in the last minutes before it disappeared.

Better weather Sunday offered searchers a chance to get a closer look at the mountains where it's suspected Button's plane may have crashed. The search includes helicopters and planes from the National Guard and Civil Air Patrol.

The search commander, Lt. Gen. Frank Campbell, said he was still not ready to send ground teams up the mountainsides to look under the snow to check "blobs" that have been detected by snow-penetrating radar carried by U-2 spy planes.

A senior Air Force official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, told CNN last week that Button, a Mormon, was distraught after a recent visit by his parents to Tucson, Arizona, where he was learning to fly the A-10. The official suggested Button was upset because of pressure from his mother, a Jehovah's Witness, for being in the military.

Campbell, however, said Sunday that there was "nothing there to suggest anything out of the ordinary" in Button's demeanor. Campbell said Button's behavior was "impeccable."

In the letter to the Pingenots, Button made no mention of
any problems with his parents.

"My folks were down for a week just recently," Button wrote.
"I took them to the Grand Canyon. Would you believe they had
never been there before?"

The Pingenots described Button as having a solid relationship
with his parents. However, in a conversation earlier this year with Button, they said, he indicated Jehovah's Witnesses
have a problem with military personnel.

"They don't like what I do for a living," the Pingenots
quoted him as saying. Button apparently made his comments after they had asked if he was a Jehovah's Witness.

A handwritten statement from Button's parents, Richard and Joan Button of Massapequa, New York, disputed the
suggestion that their son was distraught about their
religious beliefs and their visit.

"We are deeply grieved over the reports we have been
hearing," the parents' statement said. "We just came back
from being with him for six days. We had a wonderful time
together, and when we left, he was in good spirits."

The Jehovah's Witnesses released a statement to CNN that said
their beliefs "are neutral in military and political affairs.
They do not oppose a government's right to engage in war, nor
do they oppose or interfere with others' choice to serve in
the military."